The year 2025 offered a rich and diverse soundscape for music and podcast enthusiasts, providing both refuge and inspiration amidst the daily grind. From groundbreaking metal albums and intimate indie revelations to deeply analytical podcasts and innovative audio dramas, the audio content released this year resonated on a profound level. The Engadget team’s curated selections reflect this breadth, highlighting works that not only dominated personal playlists but also challenged conventions, explored complex emotions, and told compelling stories. These are the releases that defined our listening experiences, offering powerful vocals, intricate guitar work, historical insight, and emotional depth that lingered long after the final note or episode.
Spiritbox’s Tsunami Sea: A Metallic Force of Nature
The album Tsunami Sea by Spiritbox emerged as a monumental force in modern metal, captivating listeners with its dynamic range and sheer technical prowess. Frontwoman Courtney LaPlante commands attention with her breathtaking ability to shift seamlessly between ethereal clean vocals and ferocious, guttural screams, a duality she performs with effortless power both on the record and in live performances. Guitarist Mike Stringer complements this vocal mastery with a unique sonic signature, weaving together influences from nu-metal, djent, and metalcore into thick, textured riffs enhanced by innovative use of noise and whammy effects. The album itself is a carefully structured journey, opening with intense aggression before exploring more melodic and atmospheric territories, ultimately showcasing a band operating at the peak of its creative abilities and redefining the boundaries of its genre.
Bandsplain: The Definitive Music Deep Dive
The podcast Bandsplain solidified its status as an essential resource for music lovers, offering exhaustive, multi-hour explorations into the history and cultural impact of iconic artists and cult bands. Host Yasi Salek’s meticulous research and engaging presentation provide listeners with a comprehensive education, often uncovering lesser-known narratives and contextual details that deepen appreciation for the subject. The show’s extensive back catalog, including standout series on grunge and episodes featuring insightful musician guests like Geoff Rickly and Ben Gibbard, offers enduring value. Whether serving as a primer before a concert or a deep dive into a beloved album, Bandsplain masterfully blends journalism, criticism, and fandom to create a uniquely enriching listening experience that rewards both casual and dedicated music fans.
Lucy Dacus and Intimate Indie Revelations
Lucy Dacus’s album Forever is a Feeling represents a pinnacle of introspective indie songwriting, striking a powerful chord with its blend of lush musicality and lyrical sharpness. The record’s lilting harmonies and layered string arrangements create a warm, inviting soundscape for Dacus’s velvet-rich voice, yet the content is marked by incisive observations on relationships, rejection, and personal autonomy. Tracks like “So Certain” possess an immediate, timeless quality, feeling familiar upon first listen while revealing deeper complexities with each repetition. This album, alongside poignant singles from artists like Blanco White, provided a soundtrack of nuanced emotion and crafted beauty that resonated deeply, offering solace and reflection in a digitally saturated age.
Innovative Storytelling: Martian Revolution and Case 63
Audio storytelling reached new creative heights with narrative podcasts like Martian Revolution and the audio drama Case 63. Martian Revolution, from historian Mike Duncan, brilliantly applies the analytical framework of his Revolutions podcast to a meticulously crafted sci-fi narrative. His deadpan, scholarly delivery of a fictional Martian uprising against corporate Earth creates a compelling and immersive alternate history that is both intellectually satisfying and richly entertaining. Meanwhile, Case 63 leverages star power and taut writing to deliver a gripping sci-fi thriller. The performances by Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac, combined with a clever framing device using recorded therapy sessions, build palpable tension and realism, proving the enduring power of well-executed audio fiction to captivate and engage.
Personal Growth and Sonic Exploration
Beyond entertainment, audio content served as a tool for personal understanding and discovery. Podcasts like Secure Love, hosted by therapist Julie Menanno, provided a rare, educational window into emotionally focused couples therapy. By following real couples through their conflicts and breakthroughs, the podcast offers relatable insights into attachment styles and communication cycles, demystifying therapeutic processes and providing listeners with frameworks for examining their own relationships. Musically, artists like Ron Gallo and De La Soul demonstrated masterful reinvention. Gallo’s Checkmate traded earlier rock bombast for stark, acoustic emotionalism, while De La Soul’s Cabin in the Sky served as a poignant and celebratory final chapter that honored legacy while delivering contemporary hip-hop excellence. Together, these works underscored audio’s unique capacity to foster connection, whether through shared musical discovery or the pursuit of personal insight.
